On the Fifth Day
by Ossia
Summary: Abandoned - sorry.


Keys to the Kingdom, all charecters and related materials are copyrighted to Garth Nix.

It is not mine.

Although i can still wish that it was )

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Prolouge:

Slowly and desheveled, the long rigid column progressed. There were thousands in this convoy, but that was a mere fraction of what they had once been. Those that were too slow or injured and couldnt keep up, were shot and left to die. lest the enemy find use of any informaion they should give.

They were marching over dry grasslands now, the suns rays beating down upon them, the dry dusty earth and the dieing shrubs that were succumbing to the heat. The blazing sun was now directly overhead, the air shimmering and moving sickeningly upwards.

The commander of this now ruined army, whose metal face was now blistering his hands with the shear heat it had accumulated over the space of this trek, was now at the head of its column, trudging in a low, repetative rythem. On top of the horizon towards which he marched, were mountains that stretched upwards towards the ceiling of the Great Maze, and to his right was the Boundary Fort, and dirctly in front of him at ground level, the Gold Gate itself. A small number of troops that he had left in the Fort to control the switchroom were now making there way back to the main column, with an officer remaining in the switchroom with 3 things: final orders to open all 4 gates, a large bottle of whisky, and a nothing powder gun with a single bullet so as to shoot himself in the head to leave no tangible evidence or information for the enemy.

The enemy that had defeated them.

Centuries in the making of this dream, this campaighn.

Centuries of isolation from existance.

Centuries of pain and labour and pride and patience.

All made worthless in an instant.

The Piper was still in denial -that in the final moments of his perfect strategy, his flawless army, whose numbers rivaled those of 3 demises of The House- that he had been defeated. In the last moments of his campaighn, he had almost conqured the Citadel. Then, after hours of siege-warfare, a woman had burst through the front gate of the Citadel, followed by huge explosions in the ranks, his ranks, as huge barrels of Nothing powder was thrown and detonated, and the once fearsome and awe inspiring Royal Cannons, had then picked that moment to live up to their ferocious and deadly accurate repuation. The ground had shaken when those cannons fired, and he felt that his bones were a weapon used against him when the huge balls of condensed steel had hit the ground, often miles away from him but still his bones had vibrated. But the woman... She looked vaguely familiar, but then again his vision had beem compromised by that snake part of the Will, whose voice still echoed in his mind, leaving tantalising hints of familiarity, but nothing certain. When she walked down those ramparts, it was already over. When his army had seen that she was armed with three of the keys to The House, they had retreated, fled was a more accurate descrupion however, as they had climbed over each other in a wild panic that must have killed hundreds before she even moved. And he had struggled with himself in he moment of horror when she casualy raised the Trident into the air and ripped the the fluids sickeningly from hundreds of troops at a time to extinguish the flames licking the walls of the Citadel.

He shuddered again, spending a moment in silent reverence to pray that those that had had died in that maner had actualy died. One could never be sure in The House about these sorts of things, and it would be a nightmarish prospect to survive having the majority of your body -the liquids- ripped from your body and watch it sail through the air out of your mouth...

For the third time in less than a miniute he shuddered. He had an incling that the woman of his nighmares was the Will of the Architect, but of coarse he had no hard evidence, he would have to confir with his rats to make any progress there. But that had been just one key that had been used in that instance -the gloved second keys had been used to flatten battalions of his army into a wall- and he now realised the daunting prospect that it hadnt even been wielded by the heir himself, and that the heir had four keys now...

In front of him, the Golden Gate began to open, a few Nithlings came out but they were easily disposed of by his men. The Piper stood on top of a small hill that overlooked the gate as his army marched through the gates, grateful that they would soon be safe in the haven of his worldlet, where he could plan his next move. Many of his soldiers had wondered why he was contradicting his own orders, allowing 9 of his older soldiers to be carried on stretcher, while the others had to march or die, but noone dared voice there objections to his face. He allowed himself a small grin at this point, although none saw it through the metal mask, for he was proud of himself, that under such pressured situations, nomatter how weary or shellshocked his mind was, he was still able to start plans.

As he glanced at the sleeping face of one of them in the stretchers, he couldent stop the image of a catapillar that was now in its cocoon, a fitting metaphor for the sleepers future.

As the sun began to set behind him, he walked through the Golden gate (his army in front of him now), then Silver gate then Bronze. As he performed a tricky patch of sourcery to bring the Worldlet into phase with The House and to extend its bridge to the final Immatterial gate, he could have sworn the faint ring of gunshot echo though the tunnel, as the Gates sealed in.

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Authors Notes 18/7/2006

Well, i have been making notes about this story for a long time in my head, and over the summer i am going to try and put finger to keyboard and ge it done. With any luck i will have it updated rugularly, (once a fortnight is on my mind).

There might be some inconsistanceies with Garth Nixs books for which i apologise in advance (I leant my copies of the books away to holidaying freinds) and if you notice anything, please email me.

Other than that, Reviews and comments welcomed )


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